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The Legitimacy of Illegality

Webcasting often is seen as an alternative for experiments which would not be able to get a licence for ethertransmissions. The difficulty projects and broadcasting initiatives encounter when trying to get legal airspace has caused a limited view of the possibilities of working within the ether as such. It is already clear that connections between networks like the internet and the ether can be most interesting, but this is of course not the only reason to have a look at the possibilities of broadcasting more closely. The ether is still the easiest way to reach large numbers of people fast. We should always be aware it is there when we need it.

Illegal broadcasting is not approached the same by police everywhere. When you listen to the FM-band in Berlin you witness the remains of a strict military regime of this particular area. In Amsterdam or London free -or pirate- radio stations are all over the waveband, be it that each station individually is not always there for a longer period of time. To control the ether, one needs a vast controlling apparatus, like the military with all its technology and disciplinary working methods, plus one needs the desire to do so. This desire can come from habit, like in Berlin, or it can come from a dictatorship, like in Serbia.

Not everywhere both necessities for controlling the ether can be found, and these are the places where illegal stations live longest. A long life on the air is not the most important reason to start transmitting though. The basis of every medium is the need to communicate. A steady position as a broadcasting station, or of any medium if you like, only adds a side-product: More Power. Addictive as this might be, one should not underestimate the power and beauty of short and single transmissions (and the relative ease with which they can be realized).

I would like to talk about the content of transmissions, the real reason to be on the air. The ether is a very wide concept. All wireless 'communications' happen in 'the ether': FM-, AM-, SW-radio, High-frequency transmissions like portophone, mobile phone and satelite, but also infrared, radar and sonar. None of these are impossible to 'use' without a license, some are even quite easy to use. It depends on the kind of project whether transmitting, receiving, or both are applied. It is wrong to think in terms of what is and what is not allowed when contemplating the possibilities of a medium. This happens too often when people discuss mass media like radio.

Though of course radio transmissions were military technology in the very early beginnings, traditionally frequencies have been allocated to representatives of powerful groups within society. In the twentieth century we have witnessed a change as to what is the basic drive or reason to communicate. The basis of influence on media has moved from the realm of church (religion) and nobility (family) to the realm of money (which is without direct connection to any traditional values). This shift did not start this century, but it certainly was very influential. This meant for the allocation of etherspace: an increasing number of radio and television stations whose existence is mostly legitimized by the money they generate. In other words: there are more and more purely commercial stations, transmitting towards a specific audience, with 'low risk content' to reduce loss of listeners and advertisement.

What is an interesting broadcast and does culture need to be protected? All I can say now is that the policy to sell frequencies and airspace to the highest bidder (and on the basis of marketing research like here in Holland) is damaging not just variety in representation of cultures, but it damages the very basis of development of variety. It harms diversity in cultural practice, thus leading us towards monocultures, with all their disadvantages: cultural inbreeds, mainstream thinking, consumerism, fascism, policies against differences. We should demand a stop of the sale of the ether. Until that is realized, there is no reason to obey broadcasting laws when we need airspace. The inflexibility of governments and bureaucracy will probably always ask for creativity on our part.

Soon digital broadcasting will make more space in the ether to sell. Politics are already prepared for this. We need to step in now and make sure our ether does not end up as one big muzak hall. Showing the need for variety with illegal broadcasting is one way to achieve this. Illegal transmissions could also help in the case of a project like Insular Technologies, to test the possibilities of an alternative computer network which depends on packet radio. Occasional rings of transmissions could be made on different wavebands and frequencies.

To close of this plea for illegality: in Croatia a pirate station was active that used a metal garden fence as its antenna. It would also drive around with a small transmitter and use the car antenna to broadcast. Small and un-effective in the sense of spanning large area's, but so much fun. A great display of knowledge too.